2010-05-17
Original: 2010-05-17 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1 (header banner): PREDICTED DYSTOPIA
A bald man wearing a red superhero costume with a red eye-mask speaks: "The government controls all information. We've been forced into hiding. Books have been memorized so that they don't perish from the Earth."
Panel 2 (header banner): MORE LIKELY DYSTOPIA
A woman with brown hair in a green shirt stands behind a counter, speaking to a red-haired man (seen from behind).
Woman: "Sorry, we don't carry that. All writing slowly morphed into self help books."
Man: "No Shakespeare?"
Woman: "We only have 'Unleash Your Inner Shakespeare.'"
Panel 3:
The red-haired man's face, looking dismayed/unimpressed. (No dialogue.)
Panel 4:
The woman, smiling and holding up a pink book titled "LOVELY LOVE IS..."
Woman: "You might also enjoy this book of trite decontextualized Elizabethan quotes."
Votey:
A bearded man (the author/avatar) grins and says: "Ha! Any use of 'decontextualized' is funny!"
A bald man wearing a red superhero costume with a red eye-mask speaks: "The government controls all information. We've been forced into hiding. Books have been memorized so that they don't perish from the Earth."
Panel 2 (header banner): MORE LIKELY DYSTOPIA
A woman with brown hair in a green shirt stands behind a counter, speaking to a red-haired man (seen from behind).
Woman: "Sorry, we don't carry that. All writing slowly morphed into self help books."
Man: "No Shakespeare?"
Woman: "We only have 'Unleash Your Inner Shakespeare.'"
Panel 3:
The red-haired man's face, looking dismayed/unimpressed. (No dialogue.)
Panel 4:
The woman, smiling and holding up a pink book titled "LOVELY LOVE IS..."
Woman: "You might also enjoy this book of trite decontextualized Elizabethan quotes."
Votey:
A bearded man (the author/avatar) grins and says: "Ha! Any use of 'decontextualized' is funny!"
Alt text
A four-panel SMBC comic contrasting two dystopias. The first panel, headed PREDICTED DYSTOPIA, shows a bald man in a red superhero costume and eye-mask hiding in the dark, saying that the government controls all information, they have been forced into hiding, and books have been memorized so they don't perish from the Earth (a Fahrenheit 451 reference). The remaining panels, headed MORE LIKELY DYSTOPIA, show a bookstore: a brown-haired woman in a green shirt tells a red-haired customer (seen from behind) that they don't carry that, because all writing slowly morphed into self-help books. He asks 'No Shakespeare?' and she replies they only have 'Unleash Your Inner Shakespeare.' The customer's face falls. She cheerfully holds up a pink book titled 'Lovely Love Is...' and offers him a book of trite decontextualized Elizabethan quotes. Votey: a grinning bearded man says, 'Ha! Any use of "decontextualized" is funny!'
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.